Seeing With The Heart

John 9:1-41

“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”

“So where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.” 

Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.

Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”

Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”

When we say something like "Oh I see!" it doesn't always mean we saw something, it can mean we understand something. Something has been revealed to us in a way that helps us to make sense of what seemed confusing. In this account from the Gospel of John, the Pharisees are taking particular issue with the fact that Jesus is healing someone on the Sabbath. If he was a real man of God, he would not work on the Sabbath.  "Oh, I see," they seem to be saying, he can't possibly be from God. And yet, there's a division among them because he has clearly healed a man.  Hmm. How could that miracle happen if he is NOT a man of God?

Jesus implores them to see with their hearts. He says he is coming to show who is really blind and who is really able to see.  He says that if you claim to be so clear on what is going on around you while nitpicking the lives of others and choosing law over care and concern, then you will be exposed as blind.

We can become self-righteous and complacent. We can say we are not the kind of Christian who does X or treats people in ways that are not holy. We are the kind of Christians we wish others would see.  And yet, we all fail to be truly righteous in the eyes of God. In our prayer of confession when we say we fail to be an obedient church it is because we refuse to think obedience is something God calls us to be. We prefer to be obedient only to ourselves and want no other person, no God, telling us what to do.

This passage suggests that the moment we feel that way, we have become blind like the Pharisees. And somewhere among our pride and arrogance is a person Jesus has touched who can see right through us.  Someone who, despite the fact that we did very little to bring God's kingdom, allowed Jesus to spit in the mud and wipe a little paste on his eyes and give him gritty, new vision.

This week, I ask you to bring old things that you can see through for our altar display. Eyeglasses, sunglasses, telescopes, View Masters, binoculars... preferably old, that offer a way to see the world in a different way.

We are called to bring sight to the blind, recognizing that we, ourselves, may be the blind who need to see.

Comments? Email me or comment below.

"Recipes that Last"

John 4:5-42
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something."
But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 
So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.

Jesus had a knack for connecting the ordinary stuff of life to the sacredness of God's promise for the people. This story of the woman at the well is no different. A woman going about an ordinary task, encounters a man (Jesus) who does the extraordinary deed of talking to her in a society that, for a multitude of reasons, would have looked down on the verbal exchange.

The disciples can hardly believe Jesus is doing this. And the disciples continue to be amazed at the way he defies conventions. And yet, in the midst of an extraordinary encounter, this passage also has a very common everydayness to it when they begin to worry about whether or not Jesus has had time to eat a meal.  They tell him to eat something. To which Jesus replies in that cryptic way Jesus almost always replies: "I have food to eat that you do not know about. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work."

This week's heirlooms of faith focus on favorite heirloom kitchen items, favorite recipes handed down to you and all things related to food and drink.  We inherit much more than just a recipe card when we inherit that card with Grandma's carrot cake recipe scribbled on it. We inherit the memories of that cake, perhaps the joy of seeing her own penmanship on the card, the sensory connection to taste and smell that takes us back to so many places and times in our past.  Food and drink connects us to memories of people and places that we cannot connect to in any other way. I dare say it almost ranks right up there with music in the way it has an immediacy of connection to the past.

What favorite kitchen items have you inherited or have you passed down to your own kids? What recipes do you have that you got from a beloved relative that connects you still to that person's kitchen and to a place and time?  Bring those to share with us all on Sunday.

Jesus mentions to the woman at the well that living water will set her free. He mentions to the disciples that his food is to do the will of the one who sent him.  What do we need to ingest in the message of Christ to us today? What can we ingest in the songs and the sights and the sounds on Sunday? What sets us free like the living water of the Samaritan woman?

Email me or comment below.

Reviving Junk

John 3:17
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.


Romans 4:13-17 (The Message)
Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.


Abraham's story is the stuff of Hollywood movie making. A man and his wife who is long past child- bearing years, are settling in for the next chapter in their lives.  God asks them not only to uproot their entire lives (along with their entourage), but tells them that Abraham will be the father of many nations, that Sarah will bear a child.  It is the stuff of Field of Dreams... built it and they will come.  Move and trust God and you will have many descendants.  Crazy stuff.

But the story here isn't necessarily about what happened but about Abraham's choice to trust in God. And Sarah's.  The choice to believe that God will not break the covenant with you. That God will be there through all the changes that head your way.  That God can make miracles happen, but only if you play your own part in making that so.

This week's heirloom image is 'recycled junk.'  Do you have anything that was once one thing that now you use for something else.  Someone sent me this image from Facebook because it reminded them of this week's theme.

How cool. Take a door and make it into picture frames and a place to hang things. Very nice idea!  Do you have anything that has been recycled for another use?  This isn't exactly on target, but I have the armchairs that my parents had when I was born. There are pictures of me sitting on the chairs when I was six months old and, 46 years later I still sit on those chairs. That's not recycling for another use, but it is sending it to the next generation. I would love to know what things you have recycled to another generation, or have recycled for another use. Please bring some of those things on Sunday, if you can. Please no chairs or couches, etc. Haha.

God took Abraham, old and frayed and no longer looking forward, and recycled him into the father of many nations. The father of what would eventually become Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Powerful new use from one tired man.  

What things have you recycled for new purposes or have you restored to give new life? Email me o comment below.

"Quilts, Comforters, and Such"

Psalm 32
Matthew 4:1-11

The temptation of Christ. In this classic story, Christ is tempted by all that we are seduced by daily. The need to fill ourselves, satisfy our hungers. The need to attain earthly power and the need to put ourselves on top, to be God of our lives. This is a story that plays itself out in different ways every single day of our lives. This story is important for us because it tests our abilities to understand what temptation is and how we are able to possibly overcome it.

Jesus gets through the temptation in 11 short verses, which seems to us like he had it pretty easy. But, of course, he was fasting for forty days and nights. Of course he was hungry, of course he wanted more control, of course he wanted to be in charge of his own life… and it could not have been in any way easy. Even though 11 verses can make it seem so.

I hear the struggle of Jesus in the unwritten, unspoken lines. Many of our psalms are songs of lament. They are a great resource for you to go to when you feel like you are lost in the hungry, lonely wilderness like Jesus. They are a great place to go to when you fail to resist the temptations and you fail to be obedient to God’s call.

Psalm 32 says Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

And

You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.

And

Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.

How is it we get through those tempting times? How is it we get through those places where we feel like, YES Satan, I think I will jump off a cliff for you?

We let God cover us. We let God comfort us. There is a love song in the musical “Rent” called “I’ll Cover You” and even though it is a fairly provocative song about a romantic relationship, it speaks to me of God’s affection for us. “Just slip me on, I’ll be your blanket.. wherever whatever, I’ll be your coat. And the constant refrain: ‘I’ll cover you’”

All during Lent, we will be talking about Heirlooms of Faith.  Today we specifically focus on those things which cover and comfort us.  Blankets, quilts, teddy bears, little things that we hold and feel comforted by.

God wants to be that for us. When we are standing on the edge of the world and tempted to fall over and out of it, God wants to be there, to cover us, to hold us and wrap us in God’s love. 

That’s the first important lesson on this dark journey called Lent.  God is always there to cover and hold you.

What things do you feel great comfort by seeing, holding, being near? What people?  Email me or comment below. And please bring your things that cover and comfort you to church this Sunday as a visual reminder of the all-encompassing blanket of God’s love.

Also, don't forget our Ash Wednesday service at 7pm this Wednesday evening (3/5).  A perfect way to start the Lenten journey. A place to clean the slate and recognize the human frailty and the ways we need God to hold us. I hope to see you there.